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An alternative bidding strategy proposal for the IOC (aka. the Ignorant pretentious Old men´s Club)

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Norwegian IOC member Gerhard Heiberg recently warned the Olympic athletes against any form of protest activities during the Sotsji; “Forget it! You´re here to compete within your sport, not to make any kind of political statements during the Olympics. Feel free to do so in your home countries, both before and after the games, but not while the games in Sotsji are taking place”.

A few days later he calls the Norwegian athletes arrogant, amongst others for showing their support to one of the female skiers who lost her brother unexpectedly just before the opening ceremony. Some things are just not appropriate at the Olympics.

Promoting unhealthy food & drinks etc, however, is perfectly fine – as long as the right price is paid. Mourning would probably also be more acceptable, if the paid price was reasonably high (and preferably paid directly into the pocket of a few IOC representatives…?)

So… That´s when I get extremely provoced, and so badly feel like shouting directly to Mr. Heiberg´s stern face;

WHO THE F… IS BEING ARROGANT, GERHARD?

AND WHAT KIND OF GAMES ARE YOU AND THE IOC LEADERS ACTUALLY PLAYING?

Starting with the first – the Freemasons´ like group of graybeards filling the roles of the IOC must be some of the most pompous old farts the world has seen in a long time. They represent an old-fashioned generation of leaders with pre-historic values, on the verge of being extinguished from modern society like dinosaurs. Clinging to the stone-age known as the Mad Men-aera, characterized by lack of openness, ignorance towards the new expectations of modern societies, and no ethics what-so-ever. With fat cigars and expensive champagnes. Chin high, perching from their pedestal and completely on top of the flat world of IOC (the poor guys are yet to discover that the world is actually a globe…). Like looking at a imperialist photo display, largely white middle class men with a sprinkling of “women and other races” to add an extra flavor. And dominated by Europeans, off course…

Secondly – we all know perfectly well what the IOC specific favorite game of the Olympics are. It starts with a C… Not as in cross-country skiing, but as in; C – O – R – R – U – P – T – I – O – N (!!!!!!)

The International Olympic Committee has re-invented, perfectioned and silk-wrapped corruption better than any N.Y. mafia boss displayed in Scorsese´s movies. The late Samaranch, preferring to be addressed “Your Excellency” by others (which gives some not-so-nice associations towards North Korea) did a great job. As the father of modern Olympic corruption, he was the one who created bidding wars for the games – selling committee votes to the highest bidder.

MY BIDDING STRATEGY PROPOSAL: In a modern, transparent and progressive world you would think that the IOC could have chosen a slightly different path to truly demonstrate the Olympic values in practice; creating a bidding war not based on buying corrupt votes, but by including criteria related to how the applicant´s actually handle their citizen´s basic human rights. This is not a question of politics. This is a question of acknowledging that we are all brothers and sisters, and that wherever we live, we should have the same fundament for a peaceful, safe life where we can enjoy the freedom of selecting our own religion, life partner and raising our voice to share our opinions. Calling it politics is just a really, really bad excuse for ignoring government´s violations towards their citizens.

But as they have chosen the path of corruption and silencing critical voices (a bit like Russia, some could claim..), I can truly understand that the athletes are restricted when it comes promoting their personal views and support to others. Why should they have the right to exercise their human rights anyway? They´re just there to entertain us, get a medal, give us goose-bumps. Their role is to be the fresh, sporty faces of a dirty and cynical organisation perfectly adjusted to make its leaders powerful and rich. By all means, don´t try to messing up the historic sports moments by honoring the dead relative of an athlete, or by expressing your support for gay rights.

To celebrate Gerhard Heiberg & his friends, I list some of IOC’s most “magical” moments of pride;

London: A Sunday Times investigation revealed that Olympic ticket agents resold thousands of passes to the 2012 Games at more Salt Lake City: After several unsuccessful bids to host the Olympics, Salt Lake City broke bad in 1998. The IOC’s Marc Hodler snitched on his money-grubbing colleagues, saying that they had accepted bribes to vote for the city for the 2002 Winter Games. It turns out people on the Salt Lake Organizing Committee had done a lot for certain IOC members: they paid for family vacations, paid for plastic surgery, paid for ski vacations, paid college tuition, paid for Super Bowl tickets. And they gave Olympic officials loads of cash, with bribes totaling somewhere between $3 million and $7 million. But the watershed moment in Olympic bribery also marked the hiring of Mitt Romney to save the Olympics. He did, mostly.

than 10 times face value. These tickets were supposed to be sold at relatively normal price to hard-working, Olympic-loving people of 54 different nations. That didn’t happen. Instead, the offending distributors made a killing off the sales. Someone in Serbia hawked 1,500 tickets for £80,000 in cash—about $125,000. In China, single tickets went for as much as £6,000. Of the nearly 9 million tickets available for the Games, about 1.2 million were distributed to these crooks.

The biggest rat bag in this scandal: Greek Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos. Capralos—a major player in the 2004 Athens

Olympic campaign—was captured on tape saying that he “pulled strings” to get more tickets to sell. His excuse: the Greeks really, really wanted to go to the Games.

Nagano: Before the final vote to determine the host of 1998’s Winter Games, the campaign for Nagano reportedly hosted a monster party for the IOC in Neville Chamberlain’s old house in Birmingham, England The lavish 1991 affair—supposedly an ultra-secret ball—apparently cost 24 million yen (about $240,000). That explains the women in kimonos serving sushi. Despite not really being prepared

to host, Nagano won the bid. Meanwhile, Salt Lake City, equipped with a monster stadium, would later be considered the better choice.

Removing wrestling from the charts: Wrestling had been an Olympic sport since the 1886’s inaugural modern Games in Athens. It’s ancient, it’s popular, and it may not be there in 2020. In February, the IOC voted to cut the sport. The final decision, shrouded in more secrecy than the papal conclave, came down to a choice of wrestling, field hockey, and modern pentathlon (canoeing, kayaking, and tae kwon do escaped the previous round of voting). Modern pentathlon, which involves fencing, horse riding, swimming, running, and shooting, was expected to be dumped. But in a shocking turn of events, wrestling got eight of 14 votes and the heave-ho. Juan Antonio

Samaranch Jr. (yes, the son of Juan Antonio Samaranch) is a member of the IOC’s board and is also a vice president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union. This is probably unrelated.

I will definitely vote for Norwegian Olympics – as soon as the old boys´ club and corrupt stench of the current IOC is replaced with a new generation of leaders and values…